The fillet cards are pricked by a different machine. In this the pricker frame is moved by a crank, on a spin dle parallel to its axis of motion, and turned with a band and fly wheel, to give it a rapid motion. The fillet of leather is wrapped round a roller fixed in the frame of the machine, and provided with a pulley and cord, to which a weight is suspended, acting to wind the leather upon the roller; and therefore when the fillet is forcibly drawn of the roller, this weight acts to keep the leather to its proper degree of tension. The fillet is drawn for wards by a pair of rollers, between which it passes, and they are pressed together by a spring, with a sufficient power to hold the leather fast between them. They are turned round by a detent at the end of the main spindle, which moves the wheel one tooth at every revo lution; and by turtling the rollers, advances the leather a proper quantity to receive another double row of pricks, which it does from the pricker frame when it is moved by the crank before mentioned. The pricker frame, except in size, is the same as the machine before mentioned.
The wires are put into the leather by women, who first enter them into the holes, and then push them home by a thimble. Sonic can put in two wires at once ; but this requires a degree of dexterity which very few can attain. The filling the leathers is a very serious portion of the whole labour of card making, and has therefore attracted the attention of mechanics to perform it by machinery. We have seen a model of a very ingenious machine, invented by Mr James Fryer of Rastrick. near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, which pricked tne leathers, and at the same time put in the wires, previously dou bled in the usual way; hut the knee bend was given to them by the machine after being stuck through t .0 lea ther. This machine has not yet been brought into prac tical use.
We have received information of a very surprising card wire machine used in America, invented Mr Amos Whittamore. It completes the whole op• rat;on at once, cutting and doubling the wires, prickim! t .c leather, and sticking them in, and then giving the knee bend to them afterwards. It dot s one wire at a time ; but acts with such rapidity, as to complete four per se cond ; so that the whole labour by this machine is less than any one operation in the common way. The follow ing extract of a letter from the proprietor of these works, \Villiam Whittamore of West Cambridge, to the collector of Boston, dated 24th of November 1809, was published in the American minister's report on the manufactures of the United States, and gives some ac count of this manufacture.
" The machines with which we now manufacture all kinds of woo] and cotton cards that have been called for, were invented by Amos Whittamore in 1797 ; he then obtained the exclusive privilege of using the said ma chines by letters patent, for fourteen years. Amos \Vhit
tamore and myself were jointly concerned in the first machines that were built, and are still the sole proprie tors of the patent. Congress at their last winter session extended the pate•it fourteen years, by a special act. We have fifty-five of those patent machines, thirty-seven of which are now in use. These machines, with the other apparatus necessary to carry on the business to its present extent, have cost us about forty thousand dollars.
We have now employed in the factory upwards of forty hands. We manufacture weekly one hundred and eighty dozen pair of hand cards, and two hundred square feet of cards for the woollen and cotton factories, which together amount to about two thousand dollars. Had it been in our power the year past to have supplied our selves with card wire, the amount of the cards manufac tured in our factory would have exceeded three thousand dollars. Fifty thousand dollars at least, is necessary for a capital to carry on the business to this extent, exclu sive of buildings and machinery. We have been obliged to make great sacrifices to obtain money to enable us to carry on the business, so as to be able to answer the de mand for cards. Our monied institutions have afforded but little support to domestic manufactures. The wire is the only article necessary to the manufacture of cards, but what our own country produces, and that might be manufactured here as good, and nearly as cheap, as in England. Of this we have so far satisfied ourselves, {by experiment,) that nothing but want of capital has prevented us from setting up that business. The iron made on Lake Champlain is found to be as good for wire, if not superior, to any ever imported. The wire to supply our factory one year, will, in England, cost about fifteen thousand dollars, and the expences of importing, about ten per cent., (it being free of duty.) Perhaps about the same quantity is used annually in the other card manu factories in the United States. There is no doubt in my mind, from the observations made since I have been in The manufacturing business, that had the same support been afforded manufacturers generally, that has been made to trade and commerce, our manufactories at this time would have been carried on much more extensively, and would have generally afforded a profit to those con cerned. Since the obstructions to our foreign trade, the manufactures of our country have increased astonishing ly. ' The demand for wool aml cotton cards, during the present season, has been twice as great as it has been during any preceding year. We hear that Mr Joseph Dyer has, in conjunction with the inventor, recently ta ken out a patent in England for this invention, which will most certainly supersede all the other machines that have 'Seen contrived for this purpose." (a. r.)